An Exploration of Attitudes Towards Spiritual Care for Recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Spiritual-based care has been increasingly explored and investigated for its effectiveness for assisting mental illness, such as PTSD in the United States of America (Harris et al., 2018). Although research studies have attempted to explore attitudes towards spiritual care and the effectiveness of spiritual-based care for PTSD, few have explored attitudes regarding spiritual care for recovery from PTSD, especially from undergraduate allied health students. This paper explores the attitudes towards spiritual care for recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder, from undergraduate allied health students. The study adopted an interpretivist approach that deployed qualitative methods. The data collection method used for the study were semi-structured interviews. In total, four participants participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis was utilised to examine the datasets from the interviews.The research revealed that majority of participants had negative opinions regarding traditional medical treatment for PTSD and mental illness recovery. This led to the identification of barriers, such as stigma and cultural barriers, for seeking treatment for mental illness. Participants had positive opinions regarding spiritual care for assisting PTSD recovery, with recommendations that religious and spiritual needs must be assessed before the allocation of spiritual-based care to prevent conflict with patient’s religious or cultural beliefs.